Leen Helmink Antique Maps

Matthijs (or Matthys) Balen (1684, Dordrecht - 1766, Dordrecht) was an 18th-century painter and artist from the Northern Netherlands.

Married in Dordrecht on 20 May 1728 to Maria van Bavel (1694-1773), he was the son of Jan Mathijsz Balen (born 1647) and Digna Schepens (1649-1729). He was the grandson of the Dordrecht author Matthys (Mathias) Balen (1611-1691), who wrote Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht in 1677.

He was a registered and capable apprentice of Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), and like him, became a printmaker as well as a painter. He lived in The Hague from 1705–1715 and is known for his portraits, Italianate landscapes, and historical allegories. Houbraken himself had been a pupil of Samuel van Hoogstraten and was friends with Romeyn de Hooghe, both of whom had assisted the elder Balen with poems and etchings for his 1677 book on the city of Dordrecht.